Editor’s Note: The 13th Federation of Asian Clinical Oncology (FACO) Annual Meeting was grandly held in Shanghai on October 24–25, 2025. As a collaborative organization jointly initiated by the Chinese Society of Clinical Oncology (CSCO), the Japanese Society of Clinical Oncology (JSCO), and the Korean Society of Medical Oncology (KSMO), FACO has, since its founding in 2012, undertaken a series of impactful initiatives and become a vital platform for fostering cooperation and innovation in clinical oncology across China, Japan, South Korea, and the broader Asia-Pacific region.Themed “Asian Clinical Oncology—Collaboration and Innovation,” this year’s FACO meeting aimed to further strengthen academic exchange and cross-border cooperation, while helping China’s rapidly evolving innovative oncology therapeutics “go global” to meet the pressing clinical needs of cancer patients across Asia. During the conference, Oncology Frontier invited Professor Jin Li, current FACO Chair and Professor at Shanghai Gaobo Oncology Hospital, China Pharmaceutical University, and Professor Joon Oh Park, incoming FACO Chair and President of KSMO as well as Professor at Samsung Medical Center, to discuss FACO’s ongoing efforts to advance Asian clinical oncology and its future development plans, as well as to share their vision for deepening Sino-Korean academic collaboration.
Part 1 — Building on the Past, Collaborating for the Future: FACO Continues to Expand Its Mission
Q1. Oncology Frontier:
After several years, the FACO Annual Meeting has returned to China. This year’s theme is “Asian Clinical Oncology—Collaboration and Innovation.” Could you elaborate on the significance of this theme?
Professor Jin Li: First of all, I would like to thank Oncology Frontier for its support of this conference. FACO was founded in 2012, and its annual meeting rotates among China, Japan, and South Korea. Last year, it was held in Japan; this year, in China; and next year, it will take place in Korea. The meeting is often held alongside the annual conferences of one of the founding societies—CSCO, JSCO, or KSMO—but this year marks only the second time FACO has been held in China as a large-scale, independent event (the first being in 2019).
The theme of this year’s meeting, “Collaboration and Innovation,” reflects the rapid transformation of Chinese clinical research over the past decade. With China’s growing economic strength, our clinical studies have increasingly gained international recognition. For example, at this year’s ESMO Congress, several Chinese investigators delivered Presidential Symposium presentations—an indicator of international impact. Likewise, at the ASCO Annual Meeting, many high-quality studies from China were featured.
Looking ahead, we hope that with continued economic and scientific progress, Chinese biopharmaceutical innovators will expand their global presence by conducting more international multicenter clinical trials. Chinese experts should not only participate in global collaborations but also spearhead Asia-based studies—jointly conducted by China, Japan, Korea, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, and other nations—to investigate cancers with high prevalence in the region through investigator-initiated trials (IITs) or registration trials (ISTs). This spirit of joint exploration represents the essence of “collaboration” in our theme.
As for “innovation,” it is true that Japan’s biopharmaceutical sector historically developed earlier and faster—Takeda, for example, ranks among the world’s top ten pharmaceutical companies—while Chinese firms still lag behind, with the highest-ranking company currently only around 41st globally. However, recent years have seen a surge of Chinese innovations drawing global attention, including PD-1/VEGF bispecific antibodies, HER2- and Claudin 18.2-targeted ADCs, and domestic CAR-T therapies. I firmly believe that more Chinese-developed drugs will soon reach the forefront of global oncology innovation, and we must invest greater effort and resources to accelerate this progress.
Q2. Oncology Frontier:
How has FACO contributed to advancing clinical oncology cooperation among Asian countries?
Professor Jin Li: FACO’s impact can be summarized in two key aspects.
First, through registration trials, FACO helps promote Chinese innovative drugs across Asia. Of course, we also welcome products from Japan and Korea, but as a Chinese oncologist, I naturally hope that Chinese innovations can reach more patients more quickly through well-designed international studies.
Second, several Chinese oncology drugs have already been approved in other Asian countries. For instance, BeiGene’s PD-1 inhibitor has been launched in Japan, facilitating multicenter IITs in Asia to explore new indications. Similarly, Japan and Korea’s innovative therapies have also reached the Chinese market. Take zolbetuximab, a Claudin 18.2-targeted monoclonal antibody developed by Astellas: it is now approved in Korea, China, Japan, and several other Asian countries. This enables multicenter IITs for first-line treatment of advanced gastric cancer, since approximately 20–30% of gastric cancer patients—some strongly positive—express Claudin 18.2. By combining zolbetuximab with PD-1 inhibitors and chemotherapy, we can design studies specifically for Asian patients.
Such cooperative trials—uniting researchers from China, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Singapore—are entirely feasible. They not only foster regional scientific advancement but ultimately bring tangible clinical benefits to patients across Asia.
Q3. Oncology Frontier:
As the current FACO Chair, could you share whether FACO has plans to include more countries and regions in its future collaborations?
Professor Jin Li: As I mentioned in my opening remarks, FACO should embrace broader participation from across Asia—welcoming experts from Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos, among others.
At this year’s CSCO Annual Conference, we invited over 20 international experts from across Asia, including from Pakistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan. In fact, three Uzbek experts presented me with a traditional gift from their country and expressed strong interest in collaborating with Chinese researchers.
Historically, Japan and Korea had greater influence in regional oncology, while China’s economic and research capacity was more limited. But today, the situation has fundamentally changed. We should be proud of our achievements and aim to expand our international influence alongside economic development—contributing not only to China’s progress but also to the advancement of oncology in Asia as a whole. FACO’s future lies in greater international collaboration, particularly in multinational clinical research.
Part 2 — Advancing Innovation and Unity: Toward Comprehensive Sino-Korean Collaboration
Q4. Oncology Frontier:
As KSMO President and incoming FACO Chair, which presentations at this year’s FACO meeting do you believe hold the most significance for clinical practice in Korea and across Asia? In what areas do you hope to strengthen collaboration with your Chinese colleagues?
Professor Joon Oh Park: Cancer treatment is undergoing a major paradigm shift—from conventional chemotherapy for metastatic disease to modern modalities such as targeted therapy, immunotherapy, and antibody–drug conjugates (ADCs).
This year’s FACO featured numerous sessions on immunotherapy, ADCs, and ctDNA-guided treatment strategies, all of which have profound implications for clinical practice in Asia. These are crucial topics that will continue shaping the therapeutic landscape for our patients.
Q5. Oncology Frontier:
You and your team at Samsung Medical Center have participated in many international trials involving precision oncology and novel therapeutics, especially in hepatobiliary and pancreatic cancers. Could you share your experience to help Chinese colleagues engage more in global research? Which emerging treatments do you believe hold the most promise for improving outcomes in these cancers that are so prevalent in Asia?
Professor Joon Oh Park: At our center, we developed a clinical genomics platform to guide treatment for hepatobiliary and pancreatic cancers—diseases with particularly high incidence in Asia. Since 2013, we have been performing next-generation sequencing (NGS), making us one of the early pioneers in Korea.
We systematically collect and integrate patients’ clinical and genomic data, building a robust database that clinicians can directly use to inform care. This approach has proven invaluable for new drug development, hypothesis generation, and everyday clinical decision-making, and has become a key advantage in our cancer research and practice.
Q6. Oncology Frontier:
Which Chinese innovations or ongoing studies are most closely followed by Korean researchers? And looking ahead, what kind of collaborative projects would you like to see FACO promote across China, Japan, Korea, and the wider region?
Professor Joon Oh Park: Many Chinese biopharmaceutical companies are now developing groundbreaking oncology drugs—including ADCs and bispecific antibodies—and conducting large-scale clinical trials both in Asia and worldwide. We are eager to collaborate with these companies.
During this year’s FACO Executive Meeting, representatives from CSCO, JSCO, and KSMO reached a consensus to jointly conduct prospective clinical trials through the FACO platform. We are very enthusiastic about participating in and advancing such collaborative research projects.
About Professor Joon Oh Park
- Professor, Samsung Medical Center / Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine
- Director, Institute for Future Medicine, Precision Medicine Innovation Center, Samsung Medical Center
- President, Korean Society of Medical Oncology (KSMO)
- Incoming Chair, Federation of Asian Clinical Oncology (FACO)
